Monday, September 22, 2014

Underrated Treasures Blogfest

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh leads us in another creative idea blogfest. Today around 100 bloggers or more will post about a movie, band/artist, TV show or book that they feel hasn't received the love and attention it deserves. Have a look and you might find some treasures you want to experience for yourself.

If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you probably know my family is very much into sports both as participants and fans. We've watched our share of sports movies but there are a few we can watch over and over again. One that we love but that received some scorching reviews during its time is The Air Up There. This movie was criticized for just about everything except the wonderful location filming in Kenya.

In the movie, a has-been arrogant assistant college basketball coach (Kevin Back as Jimmy Dolan) is challenged to prove he's head coach material by recruiting a very tall and talented young man (Charles Gitonga Maina as Saleh) from a small village in Africa. Film critics harped on the stereotypical depiction of the natives but hey, it was a comedy movie. Instead of Saleh being grateful and impressed by Jimmy Dolan's sales pitch, the mature young man teaches the arrogant coach about what is really important. The critics complain about the cliches in the movie, lots of them, but that's what sports movies are. Fans watch them because they love the game but the story is always that other things are more important than the game. In The Air Up There, family values, friendship, teamwork and the idea that sports are only a game are the centers of an entertaining movie that will leave you feeling good.

I'm not surprised this movie didn't rate well in reviews but it's not the first and only film my family loved that others didn't love. But if you loved movies like Cool Runnings and The Sandlot, I think you'll like this one.

Don't forget to get your post ready for IWSG book, Guide to Publishing and Beyond. Please don't include quotes from others in your article. Do you have a favorite underrated entertainment to share? Have you ever watched this movie? Did it deserve the unkind reviews?

I've heard of it, but never saw it. It's funny how critics can blast a movie for cliches but then Hollywood keeps pumping out remakes of the same stuff (Spiderman, Superman, Godzilla) over and over. You can't win.